Hanjan Brings Delicious Korean To Flatiron - NYC

Hooni Kim has done it again.

At Hanjan, Kim's spectacular new restaurant in the Flatiron, the Danji chef has taken the idea of a Korean joomak, or tavern, and fused it vividly with equal measures of spice, fat and salt. Hanjan is akin to a Korean version of The Spotted Pig, with a kimchi duo ($5) in lieu of pickles, and chicken skin where there was bacon.

As at Danji, the menu at Hanjan features both a Traditional and a Modern column. But there's a crucial new third column at Hanjan: skewers, featuring sticks of gas-grilled chicken, beef, pork and mushrooms.

The chicken-skin skewer ($6) takes strips of fat and skin and layers them together, accordion-like, into a charred, tooth-sticking delight.

Kim is equally deft with hot oil as he is with a grill: Fried perilla leaves ($10) are plumped with shrimp and pork and set carefully in a tiny, woven bamboo basket.

More frying brilliance: The scallion pancake ($12) is an inversion of the familiar version. Here, the dish is more savory funnel cake than pancake, with a jumble of scallions, jalapeño slices and squid loosely bound with roping threads of rice-flour batter.

In summary: If you're not making plans to eat at Hanjan, you're doing something wrong.